- 03 Apr, 2021
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Writer’s Choice
2.1 An Overview of Research Methods
Quantitative research is research that translates the social world into numerical data that can be treated mathematically. It often tries to find cause-and-effect relationships.
Qualitative research is research working with nonnumerical data such as texts, field notes, interview transcripts, photographs, and tape recordings. It often tries to understand how people makes sense of their world.
The Scientific Method
Identify a problem. / Ask a question.
Review literature.
Define variables, provide precise operational definitions, and form a hypothesis.
Choose a research design or study method.
Collect data.
Analyze data: Evaluate the accuracy or inaccuracy of the hypothesis in predicting the outcome.
Share findings.
Repeat experiment. Replicability is an important step for scientific work.
One limit to the scientific method is spurious correlation. This arises due to an intervening variable that makes it difficult to distinguish between correlation and causation.
Paradigm shifts occur when new data generated by research force us to look at the world in a different way.
Which method to use?
All methods have their pros and cons. The choice of method is guided by what the researcher wants to accomplish sociologically, what methods the researcher is competent in, how much time the project is allotted, resources and funding, and access to people.
2.2 Ethnography/Participant Observation
Ethnography is not only a qualitative method based on studying people in their own environment but also the term for the written report resulting from this study.
Ethnographers can be covert or overt, but they must always establish a good rapport with their subjects in order to gain access to them, since research is conducted through participant observation.
Data are collected through detailed field notes featuring thick description.
Ethnographers should always be aware of reflexivity, as their presence, personal feelings, and close ties to subjects can affect the study.
To analyze data, ethnographers use grounded theory, an inductive approach whereby identifying relationships between specific data categories allows for the building of broader theoretical propositions.
Example: Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage, by Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas.
Advantages: Allows study of subcultures; may challenge taken-for-granted notions; reshapes stereotypes and public policy; allows for innovation.
Disadvantages: Lacks replicability; limits in degree of representativeness; prone to bias.
2.3 Interviews
Interviews are face-to-face, information-seeking conversations that gather qualitative data directly from respondents.
Interviewers must select a sample of respondents who are representative of the study’s target population. Interviews can be conducted one-on-one or in a focus group, but all participants must give their informed consent to be in the study.
Interviewers usually use a combination of closed-ended and open-ended questions to gain as much information as possible. Leading questions and double-barreled questions should be avoided.
For data analysis, interviews are transcribed so they can be examined for patterns of similarities and differences between responses.
Example: The Second Shift, by Arlie Russell Hochschild.
Advantages: Respondents can speak in their own words, revealing their own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs; dispels preconceptions and highlights issues that might have otherwise been overlooked.
Disadvantages: Respondents are not always forthcoming or truthful; limits in degree of representativeness.